| Ashley Harkleroad |
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CAREER Harkleroad turned pro on June 12 , 2000 . Her debut was at the ITF tournament in Largo, Florida in 1999. The following year she played her first tour qualifying in Miami and her first grand slam at the US Open . In 2001, she debuted her tour at the same events while improving her status in the ITF circuit. 2002 saw her win her first tour matches, reaching the 2nd round at San Diego , Hawaii and Bratislava where she made her first doubles semi-final with partner Maria Emilia Salerni . She ended that year in the top 200 for the first time. Her breakthrough year was in 2003, when at Charleston she defeated three top 20 players at the time (No.16 Elena Bovina, No.19 Meghann Shaughnessy and No.9 Daniela Hantuchova ) losing just 11 games along the way to reach her first WTA tour semifinal before losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne . She became the lowest ranked semifinalist (No. 101) in the event's history since unranked Jennifer Capriati reached the finals in 1990. After that performance, on April 14 , 2003 she broke out from a No.101 to climb to a No.56 ranking. Subsequently she reached the semifinals again at Strasbourg and scored her second Top 10 win and second over Daniela Hantuchova at Roland Garros while reaching the 3rd round and for the second time winning past the first round at a grand slam. On June 9 , 2003 she soared into the Top 50 at No.39 and reached the final in doubles at the Japan Open in Tokyo . In 2004, she made her career first Tour final at Auckland before losing to defending champion Eleni Daniilidou . For most of the 2005 season, Harkleroad sat out due to various injuries, but the time she was on court was spent on the ITF Women's circuit winning 2 titles. She did however reach a tour doubles final at Quebec City . 2006 Harkleroad played her first main tour event since 2005 at Auckland , successfully qualifying for the main draw only to fall in the opening round. She failed to qualify at Sydney before reaching the second round of the Australian Open (as a qualifier) where she pushed world number 4 Maria Sharapova in a tough match. On her way she upset a higher ranked opponent- Shuai Peng of China. This performance saw Harkleroad break back into the top 100 at number 83. PERSONAL
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